Fourth-grade students in Marcia Correia's class at Oakland Heights Elementary School spent three weeks studying the Titanic.

Correia got the idea while visiting the Titanic Museum in Branson, Mo. She bought replicas of items at the museum and said she wanted to create "a real-world connection" for her students.

To start the lesson, each student was given a passport of a person who had been aboard the ill-fated ship. The students researched their assigned passengers and others to learn about the experiences and accommodations different classes encountered during their time on the ship.

Correia said she wanted to incorporate math, science, literacy and social studies in the project. To that end, students read three books about the Titanic, wrote a newspaper article as though it were a current event, calculated the ship's measurements and the ocean's temperature the night it sunk and studied how the ship was built.

Students completed research assignments about people closely involved with the Titanic, including the captain, passengers and the vessel's builders.

Correia ended the project by creating a Titanic museum in her classroom. The museum featured photographs of the ship and passengers, letters written to loved ones, distress calls and a survivors' list. One of the museum's stations featured a bucket of water that was 29 degrees — the same temperature as the ocean the night the Titanic sank.

“The harshness of the water did not click with the students until they personally felt how cold it really was,” Correia said. “After holding their hands in the water for a few seconds, they understood how people were not able to continue swimming.”